Scouts Know Best Part`s The Fun

March 13, 1985|By Barbara Dillard.

Any girl who ever sat around a campfire, telling ghost stories and singing choral rounds, worked on a project for a merit badge or sold cookies door to door never forgets what it means to be a Girl Scout.

Those of us who spent our formative years learning to be ``clean in thought, word and deed,`` trying on our honor to do our ``duty to God and our country`` and struggling, however difficult, to obey the Girl Scout laws have flashbacks of friends made and experiences shared every time we see a Brownie in uniform or eat a Girl Scout cookie.

The Girl Scouts are celebrating their 73d birthday this week with activities centered on a theme that every present and former Girl Scout knows to be true, ``The Best Part`s the Fun.``

National Girl Scout Week is not only to celebrate the founding by Juliet Gordon Low of an organization for girls--then a very radical idea--but also to inform the public that ``Girl Scouting is alive and well and staying contemporary,`` according to Carol Cue, director of public relations for the Du Page County Girl Scout Council.

``Although we still have cooking and sewing, we also emphasize career choices, environmental concerns, computers and other things that are important to the next generation of women,`` she said.

One of the new programs in Du Page County is a Girl Scout troop for handicapped girls that was begun last fall.

The troop was started because ``it`s important that Girl Scouting serve all girls. We have always had diversity as our goal to help girls gain a better understanding of differences and the value of differences among people,`` Cue said.

The troop is a joint project of the Girl Scouts and the West Du Page Special Recreation District, which serves Naperville, Wheaton, West Chicago and Glen Ellyn.

The troop, made up of 10 girls with physical, learning or behavioral handicaps, is run like other Girl Scout troops as much as possible, according to Shelley Thurston, troop leader and program specialist with the recreation district.

``It may take us a little longer to do the things other Girl Scout troops do, but we work on badges, do public service projects, attend special events and have social times just like the other troops,`` she said.

The troop, made up of girls 6 to 14, has been meeting twice a month since August and has been given rave reviews from the girls and their parents.

``These girls get the same rewards from the troop that other girls do:

They learn by doing, they learn cooperation by working together on a project and they learn the Girl Scout values of being of service to others through their projects,`` she said.

The troop is looking forward to getting into camping this spring with a planned overnight trip to a cabin in the area, and eventually they are going to have an overnight trip away from home, she said.

The troop requires more volunteer help than the average Girl Scout troop, but Thurston said she is lucky to have three or four volunteers to help at each meeting.

Another new project this year in Du Page County and nationally is the formation of Daisy Girl Scouts for girls 5 years old who are in kindergarten. The troops started in January in Du Page County after years of study and pilot projects by the national council.

``Research on the national level showed that a program for younger girls would be helpful in their development because of changes in the family that led to more girls being in day care centers while their parents work,`` Cue said.

The main purpose of the program is to show girls how it is to interact socially with other girls, and reports are that the girls love the experience, she said.

Cue said the sale went extremely well this year despite the problems with foreign objects being found in some cookies last year. This year special packaging with tear strips and high-heat sealing were used to prevent tampering with the cookies.

``The support from the community during the cookie sale this year seems to tell us that people want to do all that they can to help the Girl Scouts bring programs to girls,`` she said.

Those who would like to volunteer their time or want more information on any of the Girl Scout programs may call the council office at 963-6050, 665-6094 or 833-1265.